What’s your water footprint?

When it comes to your water use, do you tread
lightly or are you an H2O Sasquatch?

Story by Leslie Jordan

How much water do you think you consume every day? You might
initially consider the length of your daily shower, the time of day
you run your sprinkler system, and how long the water runs while
you brush your teeth.

Conservation in such everyday tasks is important, but water
experts have begun to use a more all-encompassing survey of water
use by calculating "water footprints" for single individuals,
households, and even entire corporations or countries. Because
almost every daily activity can be traced back to water, your own
actions are only part of your water
footprint.

A water footprint is the amount of water you directly or
indirectly consume. This includes "virtual water"-the amount of
water needed to produce everyday things such as food, clothing, and
energy.

Watering the lawn = 750 gallons
About a half gallon of water is needed to irrigate a single square
foot of grass; watering the average American lawn requires about
750 gallons.

1 dripping faucet = 20 gallons

1 toilet flush = 1.6-5 gallons
Traditional, non-efficient toilets use 3.5-5 gallons of water or
more per flush, while ultra-low flow toilets use 1.6 gallons per
flush.

1 swimming pool = 19,000 gallons
About 19,000 gallons of water fill up the average swimming pool.
If left uncovered, pool water can evaporate at a rate of about
1,000 gallons a month.

Your virtual water use:

1 bottled drink = 1.5 gallons
The water footprint of a pound of plastic is 24 gallons, so the
average bottled water, juice, or soda uses three to five times as
much water as it contains.

1 day of electricity at home = 4-5
gallons

1 tank (18 gallons) of gasoline = 18-45
gallons
Because between 1 and 2.5 gallons of water are needed to refine a
single gallon of gasoline, the 384 million gallons of gasoline used
each day in the United States translate to more than 1 billion
total gallons of water per day.

1 beer = 30 gallons

1 cheese sandwich = 34 gallons
Growing wheat requires 156 gallons per pound; 600 gallons of water
are required to make a pound of cheese.

1 cup of coffee = 37 gallons
Making a cup of coffee takes about 37 gallons of water, including
growing and processing the coffee beans, while tea requires 8
gallons of water.

If you choose to wait for your shower water to heat, place a
bucket in the shower to catch the water and use it later for
watering plants or cleaning.

Cut water use in half by hand-watering your lawn or garden
instead of using sprinklers, or use a drip irrigation system
instead of a hose or sprinkler.

If your family wants to play with the hose or sprinkler, make
sure they do it in a dry part of the lawn that can use the
water.

After a meal, scrape off dishes into the trash rather than
rinsing. Many new dishwashers don't require pre-rinsed dishes.

Fix leaky toilets and sinks. A leaky toilet can waste about 200
gallons a day.

If building a new home or changing the plumbing in your current
one, install a graywater system, which allows you to reuse the
water from your nonkitchen sinks, laundry machine, and dishwasher
for watering plants and flushing toilets. Follow local and state
graywater system regulations.

Recycling one plastic bottle and one newspaper saves more than
5 gallons of water. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA), in 2007 only 12 percent of plastic waste was recycled,
compared to more than half of all paper materials, even though both
of these water-intensive materials can be reused and recycled.

Did you know?

China's population is more than 1.3 billion, and each of those
individuals uses about 184,920 gallons of water per year. Japan has
a population of more than 126 million, with each person's water
footprint at about 303,798 gallons per year. The United States'
water footprint is 660,430 gallons per year per person-multiplied
by 306 million.

Learn More:

To calculate your individual water footprint, visit h2oconserve.org.
H20 Conserve is a program of the Johns Hopkins University Center
for a Livable Future, the Interfaith Center on Corporate
Responsibility, nonprofit environmental organization GRACE, and
Food & Water Watch.

TWRI and the Texas A&M Natural Resources Institute are working together to foster and communicate research and educational outreach programs focused on water and natural resources science and management issues in Texas and beyond.